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April 01, 2009, 01:33 PM ET
U. of Illinois Professors Push Alternative Online-Learning Venture
A group of University of Illinois faculty members and administrators plans to roll out a proposal this month that would fundamentally change the university’s Global Campus distance-learning venture.
Nicholas Burbules, a member of the task force, thinks of it as Global Campus 2.0: a new generation of a program groping for its niche in the increasingly popular world of online learning. Mr. Burbules, a professor in the department of educational-policy studies, hopes it would ease the friction between Illinois’s established campuses and its distance-learning upstart, which is pursuing independent accreditation.
The university’s president, B. Joseph White, asked Mr. Burbules to convene a panel to look at designing an alternative model for Global Campus after faculty members expressed concerns about the academic quality and direction of the program.
How would the new version work? Mr. Burbules offered few specific details about the new plan in an interview this week. But he had plenty to say about what it wouldn’t do. Top of the list: It would not be a separately accredited entity that could compete with campus programs.
“What we want to present to the president and trustees … is something that will cost less, will fit better with the culture of the university, and that will have a much broader base of support among faculty and administrators on the three campuses,” Mr. Burbules said.
Chester S. Gardner, chief executive of Global Campus, is convinced that the program needs independent accreditation. The main reason, he said, is so “we can hire our own faculty to develop the programs that we know are needed.” Many of the school’s professors are focused on scholarship and teaching traditional students, he said.
“Reaching out to the adult learner who can’t come to campus is not a priority for them, and probably shouldn’t be,” Mr. Gardner said. —Marc Parry
Categories: Distance-Education, Teaching
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